The short answer is women who are menstruating (and ovulating), from about age fourteen (or about two years after the average onset of menstruation) through their early fifties, until they undergo perimenopause and menopause. Although a woman of any age can have PMS, it often first appears when a woman is in her mid-twenties, and many women report their symptoms get progressively worse as they get older. PMS symptoms may also be exacerbated in women who are stressed, have more children, suffer from mood disorders, or have relatives with PMS.

Depression, a risk factor for PMS, also is most likely to appear in women in their late twenties to mid-thirties, so there may be a confluence of age, depression, and PMS as women age. In other words, women in this age bracket are more likely to become depressed and also to get PMS; however, a casual relationship has yet to be demonstrated.

Stress

Stress, so common in our culture today, also appears to be a big culprit in whether a woman gets PMS, and how severe it is. A 1990 British study by Warner P. Bancroft found that after six years of natural cycles, women with high stress levels were more likely to report symptoms of PMS. Other studies have found that women who report PMS also indicate they experience high stress from work, financial strain, dissatisfaction with marriage, busy schedules, and family conflict. Is this because stress makes women perceive their symptoms more acutely? Or are stress and PMS biologically connected? Some research does indicate a biological connection. (Chapter discusses stress as a risk factor for PMS in more detail.)

Culture

Believe it or not, your culture influences how you perceive PMS symptoms, including which symptoms you believe are worst and how severe you believe them to be. Women who live in the United States or in Western Europe perceive PMS differently than women who live in China, for example.

A number of researchers from different disciples, including law, have argued that PMS is a culture-specific syndrome limited to Western countries. In 2002, Joan Christler, a professor of psychology at Connecticut College, detailed some of the culture-specific about PMS. She notes, for example, that much of the research been conducted by scientists in a few Western countries, including Australia, given its European heritage, Canada, Germany, the Britain, Sweden, and the United States. Surveys by the Health Organization also indicate that women in Western Australia, and North America are the most likely to report menstrual cycle–related complaints (except cramps). In contrast, women Asia are not only less likely to report their symptoms as severe, when they do report PMS symptoms, their symptoms differ those reported by women in Western countries.

While studies detailed that women all over the world experience similar symptoms related to their menstrual cycle, they reveal that not all women perceive the symptoms in the same way and that what some women consider as PMS, others do not. For example, studies have found that Asian women report pain as the most significant symptom in PMS, while Western women say it's depression. In addition, women in Hong Kong and Mainland China report increased sensitivity to cold as a PMS symptom, while American women do not. In a 2002 study of American health maintenance organizations, women of Asian descent reported fewer PMS symptoms than Caucasian women, while Hispanic-American women reported more severe symptoms. Experts like Christler believe that cultural perspective influences how a woman sees her symptoms and whether she sees them as just part of being female or as part of a medical disorder that can (or should) be treated. “Only in Western societies (and more often in some than in others) do women think their premenstrual emotional state is abnormal and might signify a need for professional intervention,” Christler writes in a 2002 article in the journal Annual Review of Sex Research.